Thanks for the tip Dave. I'll give it a shot with lacquer thinner, but I wont sweat it at all if I can't get that can to work again since the area that needs to be the most durable is already painted with rustoleum when the can was working.

I hadn't thought about a tail stripe.. if I did one it would probably be black because I want to put a flat black fiberglass hood on it too.

Thanks for the pics EXIT, looks good, Im still debating on if I should or not, cause black is just a nice color, and I like chrome and black/chrome combo rocks, but thanks, Im still uindecided,well Ill have all winter to decide since itll be sitting, but as of now here it was the black looks like after wetsnaded and washed/waxed

still needs alot more wetsanding, but orange peel isnt bad, except on the trunk.

something to ad this late in the game, is i sprayed the rear fender and i had a run so i took a rag and wiped the paint off that ran then i re sprayed the spot and it worked fine no more runs.

Why is the Brightside Red and Blue on EBay so cheap compared to normal internet retail? Has anyone used this stuff. I want to get some of the blue, but it is so darn dark, I wonder how I could lighten it up some?

I guess I could buy a Qt. of white.

hey guys ive tried to read all thati can but i know i got the basics down but now people are experamenting with different paints and all...is the marine paint cheaper? and will it stick to just about everything and get good coverage? cause i got my camaro that igot half primered and half the primer is red and the other primer is grey, and i also just put new doors on that are burgandy that i sprayed some high heat paint on certin spots so they wouldnt rust cause when we loaded them into my buddys 2 door cavalier (not my old red one there) they got scratched a bit and a little dented so some bondo work is kinda needed...does it also stick to bondo? or is this gunna be one of those primer first jobs as compared to the tremclad...also whats with the talk of the reusable spray cans? where do u get them from..ne ways heres pretty much the best pic i got right now



might be a little big...

I've been following the saga for about a week...read through ALL the posts! Anyway, I have a couple of questions about this process, both with Rustoleum and Brightside...
1. Since Tremclad said their clear should be thinned with lacquer thinner, has anyone tried thinning the regular Trem/Rusto with lacquer thinner?
2. How do you effectively smooth and level the body without first shooting a filler primer? Lots of bondo everywhere, then sand it all off??
3. Marq, do you think Brightside could be easily sprayed out of a HVLP?
4. Did the Brightside paint require as much wetsanding between coats as the Tremclad did? I'm trying to save myself some wetsanding time...
5. Has anyone tried laying down that Brightside being sold on eBay yet??

I'm looking to paint my beater diesel Olds station wagon and later tackling my '71 Cutlass 'vert if that works out well!

Chris

Filler primer would be a good idea if you have lots of scratches. I didn't do it, but I had a pretty straight body to begin with. The rustoleum will fill in sanding scratches (esp. with 18+ coats) to some extent, but for big scratches or gouges you can use a skim coat with bondo and fiberlgass resin, start the sanding with 180 which is not aggressive, and feather it into the surrounding area.

If you are concerned with perfect straightness, you might also investigate whether you'd be happy with the end result of the paint. It's not a show quality shine. So it would be worth doing some test panel first to see if it's worth all the prep it sounds like you want to do, then put a paint job over it that you might not like.

...and glad to see it brought up, since some of the newer folks may have missed the original point of this mammoth thread.

This isn't about show quality or prefection. It's about creating a finish of reasonable quality on a limited budget. It's a campaign, a quest to rid the roads of multi-hued beaters that shame their drivers who can't afford a trip to the paint shop.

Perfection and the concourse are about $10,000 thataway....a sense of satisfaction and pride in doing it yourself are right here.

I just want to say thank you guys for your help and solving my slight issue. It was infact the gloves...since I didn't have that issue when working on the car. Speaking of which..here is the sixth coat...still need to wetsand and polish..but I love the results.

It looks like you have done a great job on your car... Kudos to you !

---

On the topic of polishes etc....

So I have begun the task of moving from a straight paint gloss and shine - and I am now working on the POLISHING and waxing stage of my McLaren... So I thought I would share some observations...

3M Perfection III compounding

I had read a lot of good reviews on the 3M Finesse II for compounding the paint. Unfortunately when I went to the local body shop supplier he 'claimed' that they no longer make that product and that they now selll the new improved version as 3M Perfection III. The stuff did a great job with the Brightside paint - and I would suspect it would do an equally excellent job on the Tremclad/Rustoleum - since it is designed for 'all types of paints' according to its packaging. It did an excellent job of getting the paint smooth and glossy.

TURTLE WAX ICE

Well this product turned out to be a MAJOR DISAPPOINTMENT. As far as I am concerned it is no better then spraying Armorall on your paint job. It applies easily and looks GREAT when first applied. Then as it dries out you realize that the CRAP is 99% mineral oil... and that oil is what was giving the great temporary shine. In the end even that trace of a shine disappears. But then again what should we expect from a product where the manufacturer says you can also use it on your vinyl interior and rubber etc. I took this CRAP back to the store and got my money back. I was furious. I felt very let down by the strong brand name of Turtle Was. Frankly they should be embarassed selling ICE - and not float advertising about how this product is going to be their flagship product into the next century.

MEGUIRER pure Carnuba wax.

Everyone said that pure Carnuba was the best for waxing, shine, water repelling etc. And they were RIGHT. Funny thing about this product... it is suppose to be pure carnumba... but you know they are LYING simply because the stuff smells like Bananas... I am no Carnuba expert but I am pretty sure that natural carnuba doesn't smell like bananas. Pure ? Uh... it can't be. Oh well I digress. The Meguiars product went on nicely with the Cable & Porter polisher. It not only laid on a shine but it was able to give a darker and deeper appearance to the compounded paint.

Meguiars XTech Wax

Now... this is the flagship product of Meguiar and they said that it would give a shine and deep coloring that rivals the carnuba. They were right. Although it is all synthetic, they are right that the end result will rival carnuba. Apparently this synthetic is all based on polymers and nano-technology where the glossing molecules are able to become part of the paint etc. All I know is that this tuff worked great over the compounded paint job. Overall I would give it thumbs up ( and it certainly kicks the a$$ of the Turtle Wax's flagship product ).

One nice thing is that the two Meguiars products are quite complementary and you can use BOTH to reap the benefits of each of the products.

.

yah turtle wax can't wax them selves out of a hole. never was a good product except there rubbing compound. i use mothers 3 step wax on my vehicles.

i have the norton ice product that has 3 pads for polishing a wool, blue foam and a yellow foam. when i worked at dealerships this is what they used and i tried it on the old paint before i started and it came out like glass. so i will use it on the rustolium when i get the car put back together...

Painted the door and trunk jambs with HVLP gun and rustoleum. Wish I had used this for the engine bay, it would have worked much better than that pump up spray can (which seems to not work much anymore).

thats how i did my car all with a hlvp spray gun.

before


after

It's a harbor freight gravity feed gun and 1.4 tip. I barely tuned anything at all.